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Gear, Tony and Shi, Hong and Davies, Barry J and Fets, Nageh Abdelelaziz (2017) The impact of mood on decision making process. Euromed Journal of Business, 12 (3). pp. 242-257. ISSN 1450-2194
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The impact of mood on decision making process
INTRODUCTION
In this paper we review related literature, and present the results of an industry case study, conducted in three Arabic commercial banks, with the aim of understanding the nature of the strategic decision making process. This paper aims to assist in understanding the nature of the strategic decision making process, through a case study of three Arabic commercial banks, supported by a review of the relevant literature. The case study provides empirical evidence for the influence of mood that arises from the type of decision task and its context on the decision making process. This type of influence is known as the ‘integral affect’, to differentiate it from incidental influences of mood on decision process, and from the regret associated with a decision, whether such regret is antecedent to a decision and/or is an anticipation of regret. (Lerner et al., 2015; George and Dane, 2016).
Most empirical studies of strategic decision making process (rather than the quality of decision making output), have been concerned with the degree of rationality, and rationality’s relationship with contextual features such as decision type, company size, decision-maker characteristics, and the internal and external environment (Elbanna, 2006; Elbanna & Child, 2007a,b; Dean & Sharfman, 1993; Brouthers, et al., 2000; Papadakis & Barwise, 1998; Goll & Rasheed, 2005). These studies have quantified the factors deemed to influence the nature of the decision process, and usually employed factor and/or regression analysis based on survey data. A problem with these survey-based research methods is the difficulty of addressing the micro-practices, personal and inter-relational, which form an integral part of any strategic decision making.
Here, there are two contributions to knowledge. The first is to highlight the relevance of studying the mood (emotional state) of strategists as an aspect of strategy-as-practice; secondly, to highlight how qualitative interviews with strategists, rather than survey based research approaches, can provide understanding of the factors influencing mood, as well as of the effects of mood on decision making processes.
These aspects of praxis reveal themselves through employing and interpreting a series of interviews with senior managers in one business sector. These practice elements relate strongly to the notion of strategy development. The ‘strategy-as-practice’ perspective presented in Chia & Mackay, (2007) offers theoretical insights. Hodgkinson & Clarke (2007) proffer a model to aid the profiling of the cognitive characteristics of strategists, and Narayanan et al (2011) have reviewed the associated concept of ‘strategic cognition’.
The present study explores the impact of contextual and task related features on mood,
and on how managers strategize. It addresses one of the “research priorities of a strategy -as-practice (s-as-p) perspective that emphasizes a micro ‘activities-based’ approach to
understanding strategy and how managers strategize” (Chia & MacKay 2007, p 218). Data from sixteen personal interviews with senior managers, each directly concerned, and involved in making, five recent strategic decisions, each of which was critical to organizational
survival are presented and interpreted. .
The study addressed two research questions:
Question 1: What was the relative importance of `rationality`, `intuition`, and `political
behaviour` in the strategy-as-practice approach?
Question 2: How and why did contextual features influence the Strategic Decision
Making Process (SDMP)?
Schwarz (2000) and Vince (2001) have emphasized the potential importance of studies of these emotional states and their relationships to process as integral parts of ‘learning and deciding’ activities in organizations. A framework for how contextual conditions determine emotional mechanisms, based on a four-fold classification, and shape decision-making practice was proposed by Pfister and Bohm (2008). They suggest that several emotional functions may be operating in a given context, leading to differences and ambivalence amongst decision makers.
The topic of strategy development has received considerable attention, but there is still limited knowledge (Eisenhardt & Zbaracki, 1992; Papadakis & Barwise, 1998; Milliner, 2006). There are some contradictory results (Butler et al 1993; Rajagopalan et al 1997; Hough & White, 2003; Elbanna, 2006). Generalizations about the subject in varied contexts have not been possible. Some decision process research seeks the underlying mechanisms that can explain repeated decision related behaviours (Sminia, 2009; Blanchette & Richards, 2010). These research strands have covered a variety of influences, with each strand focusing (typically) on a single category of influencer, often in laboratory-based conditions.
Studies of relationships between emotions and decision making leave little room for doubt of the relevance of emotions to choice behavior, and vice-versa (Hertel et al, 2000; Lerner & Keltner, 2000; Schwarz, 2000; Starcke et al, 2012; Hartley, 2012; Peng et al, 2014). The last paper reviewed key differences of constituent mechanisms on the effects of general feeling states, as well as those linked to the specific nature of the decision related task, (e.g. decision-task criticality), on individual behavior. Blanchette and Richards (2010) had concluded that anxiety increases risk aversion, and that anxiety may lead to more normatively ‘correct’ responses, when reasoning about risky decision tasks.
The role of emotions in decision-making continues to receive interest, as evidenced by a special issue on affect and emotion in decision making (Peters et al., 2006). Yiend, (2010) reviewed the effects of emotion on attention. A review of the influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making in laboratory conditions concluded that the effects on outcomes are moderate to large (Angie et al, 2011). However, few studies have investigated emotional influences on decision making in ‘real contexts’, as opposed to laboratory conditions. The present paper addresses this gap in the literature. It provides empirical support for the influencing role of mood on decision making process, when the nature of the decision task, and its context, give rise to the affect and emotional state. The mood state is integral and related to the decision task rather than incidental and unrelated. (Lerner et al., 2015).
Strategic decision process theory proposes that decision makers’ cognitions are moderated and constrained by their business environments, organization structures, resources, as well as their personal experiences and perceptions (Ramos-Garza, 2011, p.790). This view is supported by more ‘mainstream’ literature (Dean & Sharfman, 1993,1996; Rajagopalan, et
al.,1993; Baum & Wally, 2003; Milliner, 2006; Elbanna & Child, 2007a,b; Zehir & Ozsahin, 2008; Styhre et al., 2010).
These studies emphasize the importance of exploring factors which influence the strategic decision making process, including procedural rationality, political behaviour, intuitive judgment, decision importance, decision motive, decision uncertainty, environmental uncertainty, senior staff characteristics, and specific features of the environment.
The relevance of cultural influences on decision-making has also been reviewed. (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2007; Branine, 2011; Dimitratos, 2011). Intuitive aspects of decision-making were also considered in several studies (Simon, 1987; Agor, 1989;; Khatri, & Ng, 2000; Kahneman, 2002; Sadler-Smith & Shefy, 2004; Dane & Pratt, 2007). The wide range of decision-making influencing factors previously considered, as the literature shows, is considerable.
In the psychological literature there is a debate concerning the relationship between emotion and cognition, with some theories focusing on the effects of cognition on emotion, others on the reverse. (Garcia et al., 2015, present a review of theories). The present study adopts a view based on ‘appraisal theory’ ((Lazarus, 1991): affects (that is emotions) are based on personal evaluation of a given situation, the emotional stimulus of which causes the individual to react. Emotions are generated when a person is in a situation which compels their attention and requires a response. (Gross et al., 2011).
Question 1 follows directly from the research framework established by Elbanna & Child (2007a) for a hypothesis led survey-based study of Egyptian companies. The question is aimed at assessing the relative importance of rationality, intuition, and political activities during the strategic decision making process in the selected Middle Eastern Banks. There is an on-going interest in process research because inconsistencies remain regarding the degree to which strategic decisions are made rationally, or not. (; Dean & Sharfman, 1993; Goll & Rasheed, 2005; Elbanna, 2006; Mitchell et al, 2011;).
Question 2 concerns the factors influencing the strategic decision making process in the context of Middle Eastern banks. Generalizations have not been possible due to the wide range and types of influencing factors. (Pettigrew,2003; Mitchell, et al, 2011; Elbanna, et al
2013). Question 2 seeks to uncover the key influencing factors of the strategic decision making process by means of an inductive, empirical approach in one banking context. (Shrivastava & Grant, 1985; Sminia, 2009).
The study addressed these questions, as emphasized by Chia and MacKay (p.222): “the practice perspective reorients strategy research towards the work, talk, activities and competencies of individual managers as strategists. Rather than focusing on the core competence of the organization as a whole, it looks at competence in terms of ‘how managers “do strategy”’ . The questions are posed in order to: ‘identify the key mechanisms connecting
macro to micro, and a good deal of what happens is explained’.(Seidl and Whittington, 2014).
RESEARCH APPROACH
The integrative framework for this study represents a pre-understanding of the influences (1, 2, 3, 4) on the nature of the strategic decision-making process (5), in the banking context, as follows:
1. External Environmental Characteristics: Environmental Uncertainty, National and Cultural Influences.
2. Internal Firm Characteristics: Company Size, Performance, and Senior Staff Experience.
3. Decision-Specific Characteristics: Decision Importance, Uncertainty, and Motive. 4. Emotional states and relational aspects among the senior management strategists. 5. Strategic Decision-Making Process Dimensions: Rationality, Intuitive Judgment, and
Politically Motivated Behavior.
These aspects generally follow, and add to for point 4, the framework presented by Elbanna & Child (2007a, 2007b). While exploring each individual perspective is important,
combining them in one study is also important, because (a) each individual influence explains only a part of the process (Hitt and Tyler, 1991; Eisenhardt and Zbaracki, 1992; Rajagopalan & Datta, 1993) and (b) interactions between the influences may be included (Brouthers et al., 2000).
The study adopted a social constructivist philosophy (Bryman & Bell, 2011). It was focused on gaining an understanding of individual and relational phenomena of senior managers in the banks. It viewed strategic decision-making from their perspective, using responses generated in face-to-face interviews. The aim was to explore the ‘how and why’ of specific decisions, and what factors participants thought had an impact on the process.
This approach follows Pettigrew (1985, p 22), who stated that studies of strategic management should adopt a contextualized approach allowing the researcher to view “The emergent situation and holistic features of an organization or a process in its context, rather than divide the world into limited sets of dependent and independent variables isolated from
their context”.
Five strategic decisions taken in three banks were treated as a case study in the Arabic banking sector, allowing the analysis of each decision, as a separate unit of analysis (Blumberg et al., 2005; Pettigrew, 2013). These five decisions were self-selected by the banks as being of critical importance to their survival and future success. The present study explored and analyzed each of five strategic decision processes, using interviews with sixteen key personnel, each closely involved with the decisions. The selected decisions were recent, strategic, and traceable (Miller, 1997), with major long term implications, as detailed in Table 1.
---
Table 1 here
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The interviews used questions selected from those used in a survey conducted by Elbanna & Child (2007a). The questions were edited into a more open form for semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured instrument was translated into Arabic, and then back-translated to test consistency. Open questions gave the interviewer opportunities to request additional information relating to ‘how’ and ‘why’ a particular process of decision making was followed. The interviews were structured around four questions related to rational approaches, three questions concerning intuitive judgment and five about political influences.
The interviewer acted as a guide, providing the participants with a short list of the areas to be covered, so that the discussions did not lose focus from the main points of interest. Interviewees were encouraged to talk freely about events that affected their decisions. Each of the interviewees held a very senior post in one of the three Commercial Banks (identified as A, B, and C), as detailed in Table 2.
---
Table 2 here
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RESULTS
The paper addresses one of the central research priorities of a ‘strategy-as-practice ‘ perspective which emphasizes a micro activities-based approach to understanding how managers strategize, by interpreting semi-structured interviews with strategists. In particular, some relationships between macro elements of context, and their affects on micro elements of the mood of strategists, are inferred. (Chia and MacKay, 2007; Seidl and Whittington, 2014; Fenton and Langley, 2011; Brown et al, 2014).
Question 1: What was the relative importance of `rationality`, `intuition`, and `political
behaviour` in the strategy-as-practice approach?
The analysis of the interviews was undertaken in Arabic, following transcription, using the themes and sub-themes from the interview structure. All three Arabic commercial banks had followed a similar approach to making strategic decisions. The participants indicated that they sought to use procedural rationality, rather than intuitive judgment: time and resources were expended gathering and analyzing information for each strategic decision. Executive and other staff co-operated and consulted with each other, often by virtue of friendship and personal relationships.
The Banks’ senior managements adopted a careful approach in relation to the strategic decisions. The senior management groups responsible for making these decisions were
relatively inexperienced in terms of these critical decisions. There was external pressure from the Central Bank to follow policy guidelines. These influences resulted in a high degree of personal concern to make a ‘good’ decision.
Question 2: How and why did contextual features influence the Strategic Decision Making
Process (SMDP)?
Organizational culture influenced the decision-making process through the cooperation and support among groups of decision-makers. This ‘interconnectedness’ is a significant aspect of the customs and traditions of kinship among Arabic people.. Participants paid careful attention to each decision, especially as they lacked relevant experience. Rationality was prioritized over intuition in the SDMPs, because of the significance and importance of the decisions, and secondly to avoid the perceived risks of making mistakes.
A key driver of senior management behaviour was the recognition (during analysis) of the emergent theme of ‘concerned attention’ in the senior management group (See example quotations assembled in Table 3). The interpretation of the interviews is that ‘Concerned
attention’ within the senior management groups led to considerable care and thought being given to each strategic task. ‘Concerned Attention’ is an emotional state, defined here as a mild form of anxiety, with several antecedent factors: the critical importance of the strategic decisions to the future of the banks; pressures for change imposed by the Central Bank; and the relative inexperience of the senior management groups in relation to the specific and crucial strategic decisions.
The importance of the decisions, coupled with inexperience, led to a second emergent theme: co-operative and consultative behavior among the top management groups (See example quotations assembled in Table 4). This conclusion does support some laboratory-based evidence which finds that negative mood states can prompt a more co-operative style of decision making in small groups (Hertel et al., 2000).
---
Table 3 here
---
The analysis of the interview data supports the development of a framework for the strategic decision making process. This framework places the emotional state of concerned attention amongst the senior management group as the dominant influence driving the adoption of a rational approach, coupled with co-operative and consultative behavior. The interpretive framework, presented in figure1, offers an explanation of the empirical results.
The adoption of a rational analysis and co-operative approach Strategic decision outcome Munificent environment which allowed a rational analysis The availability of financial resources and time analyse ‘Concerned attention’ in the senior management group Relatively in-experienced senior management group Pressure from the Central Bank to follow policy guidelines Crucially important strategic decisions for the bank
Figure 1: An emergent explanatory model.
The emotional state (mood) of ‘Concerned Attention’ derived from the situational features. In particular, the crucial importance of the decisions loomed large in the minds of participants, as did their relative inexperience as a senior management group in relation to those decisions. Policy pressures from the Central Bank to change and modernize banking methods heightened their concerned attention. The senior groups adopted rational methods of analysis, as the groups had both the resources and time to do so; the rational methods served to reduce their degree of anxiety.
This interpretation is consistent with prior studies in political decision-making. These studies concluded that a degree of anxiety may cause an individual to review and analyse information more rationally and reach a more carefully judged decision (Marcus & Mackuen, 1993), or put pressure on them to demonstrably ‘analyze information’ (Schildkraut, 2004).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The present study provides empirical evidence to further the debate concerned with the relevance of micro/macro studies which emphasize the decision makers in their contexts, (Bamberger, 2008; Hutzschenreuter & Kleindienst, 2006; Mador, 2000), and uncover generative mechanisms which explain regular patterns in event sequences (Sminia, 2009). The empirical approach proposed by Rajagopalan, et al (1993), enabled provision of a rich description of process and influencing factors and related individual (micro aspects) of emotional state with more macro views of influencing factors, leading to theintegration of micro and macro levels of analysis. (Fenton and Langley, 2011; Brown et al, 2014)).
These results contrast with multi-sector findings for Egypt (Elbanna & Child (2007b). The Egyptian study found that decision type and firm type were the most significant influences shaping rationality, and that environmental features were less important influences. An empirical study undertaken in Greece shows a similar contrast to the presentstudy; it too found no evidence to support a hypothesis that organizations in hostile environments would follow a more rational decision process (Papadakis, et al., 1998). A large empirical study of strategic decisions had previously indicated that managers in hostile environments made more erratic decisions ( et al., 2011). Conversely, the present study has found that the
availability of time and resource (in a munificent environment) supported and encouraged a rational, rather than intuitive, approach to analysis despite what might be seen as a hostile environment.
Senior management characteristics were an important influence in the Arabic context. Papadakis et al., (1998) also reported on the importance of such top management characteristics. Key amongst these characteristics was experience. The use of rational analysis by senior managers reduced perceived risks to both the individuals and the organizations. In the cases here, this was particularly so, as the groups lacked SDMP experience. The results here do support the suggestion, by Elbanna et al. (2013) from a study in Egypt that more experienced and confident managers appear to be more intuitive in reaching decisions.
During the interviews, there were several references to the influence of the Central Bank, requiring a more rational analysis of strategic decisions. This chimes with a factor identified by Shrivastava & Grant (1985). They examined organizational power structures by means of case studies, and found that the centralization of power was related to rational decision processes. Given the particular nature of the banking sector, it seems safe to assume that Central Banks effectively form part of the decision-making unit with the commercial banks, serving as a centralized, regulatory power. The consequent formalization of a power structure, leading to greater use of rational processes, is consistent with several earlier studies in larger organizations (Rajagopalan, et al., 1993).
In the present study, the crucially important nature of each of the strategic decisions to each of the banks increased explicit rationality in the SDMP approach. This importance had a positive influence on the use of rational processes of data collection and analysis, consistent with other studies (Dean & Sharfman,1993); Papadakis et al., 1998; Elbanna & Child (2007a). These studies suggest that the perceived magnitude of impact of a decision will strongly increase the degree of rational behaviour.
A holistic interpretation of how certain factors dominated the process of strategic decision-making in Arabic commercial banks has been provided. The study focused on historical (retrospective) analysis of five critically important, recent, strategic decisions. There was a high level of agreement amongst respondents related to the processes of decision
making, both within and between the banks. The open, semi-structured nature of the questioning allowed the development of an explanatory framework which relates contextual factors to the processes, with emergent themes of ‘concerned attention’, and ‘co-operative and consultative behaviour’.
The research approach was based on interviews of senior staff in three Arabic banks, each closely involved in making the strategic decisions which were crucial to long term survival. Four limitations of the present study may be discerned. First, the results are dependent on interpretation of interviews from participants who may, themselves, fail to perceive the role played by intuitive judgments, perhaps at the concluding stages of otherwise rational processes. This may lead to an under-reporting of intuitive aspects of process. Second, the participants were (deliberately) not questioned about their agreement, or disagreement, with the strategic decisions which were made. Their level of agreement or disagreement may have biased their responses to interview questions. Third, there is likely to be a process of post-rationalization of past judgments. Conducting interviews with more than one participant for each decision may serve to reduce these limitations. Fourth, the interpretations are open to the influences, values and biases of the researchers themselves. We remain circumspect regarding what to conclude definitively, bearing these issues in mind.
Approaches to studying SDMP in organizations have usually employed factor analysis and/or multiple regression of data collected by survey (Elbanna & Child, 2007a, 2007b; Papadakis et al., 1998). Such statistical analysis usually involves the use of a closed form of questionnaire, distributed to a large sample of several hundred respondents. The samples cross boundaries, often including business sector, company type, size, profitability, etc., in order to generate sufficient data. In the present study, the nature of decision processes and the influencing factors have been studied in one context, with case studies of specific decisions.
The spread of contexts in survey data often make it unclear as to what type of organization the results apply. Also, the closed form of questionnaire precludes exploration of emergent, or hidden, mechanisms relevant to SDMP. A quantitative approach does highlight the relative importance of factors, and statistical relationships between variables. The problem of interpreting relationships between variables, in terms of cause and effect, remains with the researcher.
An in-depth approach to SDMP studies within specific contexts may well be a useful way forward. Limiting the complexity of (some) inter-linked variables and keeping the decision environment relatively constant means that factors such as decision motive and criticality, organizational size, business sector remain stable, in a way not possible in generalized surveys.
One potential future research hypothesis might be: in situations where contextual factors
produce an emotional state of ‘concerned attention’ (a form of anxiety), in the senior
management group responsible for SDMP, then that group will utilize a high level of rational, cooperative and consultative behaviour, rather than intuitive judgment, provided that appropriate resources are available.
The present study has explored a socio-emotional perspective by gathering evidence related to specific decision processes and influencing factors from individuals. There is a need for studies to combine micro-studies with more macro socio-political studies (Rajagopalan et al.,1993; Brown et al., 2014). Laboratory and field-based studies both demonstrate the close relationship between cognition and emotion on the one hand and strategic decision-making processes on the other. This highlights the understanding to be gained by closer connection/collaboration between these two types of study, a point well made by Schwarz (2000). Field-based studies could utilize a generalized model, as proposed in figure 2, as a starting point.
Locally situated contextual factors Strategists’ mood (emotional state) Nature of strategic decision-making process
Figure 2: A proposed generalized conceptual model
The distinctive positions of strategic process research and strategy-as-practice research have been discussed by several authors, including Whittington (2007) and Carter, et al (2008). Here the argument is based on the presented empirical study of this paper, that exploration and analysis of narrative experiences of strategizing and decision making in organizations can serve to break down the divide between macro and micro views of process and practice, respectively. Narrative experiences provide ways of studying together the micro and macro activities which emerge from sense-making studies. (Fenton and Langley, 2011; Seidl and Whittington, 2014).
From a sense-making perspective in organizations, the divide between macro and micro studies becomes illusory, allowing the study of discourse to investigate contextual features as well as social norms, power relationships, and the role of emotional states, and how these relate to decision-making and change. (Brown et al, 2014). ‘It is time to move beyond the mere documentation of behavioral results of emotions to direct tests of the proposed
mechanisms underlying these effects’. (Zeelenberg et al 2008, p24).
There is also a need to explore and analyze causal relationships between contextual, emotional, and process variables by means of longitudinal studies. The possibility of training individuals to overcome the processing tendencies associated with their cognitive style has been suggested by Hodgkinson & Clarke (2007). For this purpose, an approach based on ‘organizational learning’, which includes the roles of individuals and groups in processes of decision making over time, mayfacilitate an exploration of group processes, biases, degrees of anxiety, relational, political and other socio-emotional factors.
For example, group support techniques could aid senior management groups in SDMPs to surface, explore, and address situated contextual and relational features, as well as emotional states (See Read et al., 2012 for a discussion). From the perspective of management practice, interventions of this type, offering a practical approach to organizational learning in an organization, have the potential to enable personnel to develop insights into their own
micro-processes, and increase understanding of how contextual and emotional states within a group or organizational setting are affecting their decision practices (Shrivastava & Grant, 1985).
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Table 1
The five strategic decisions
Decisions Banks Description of the decisions
Establishment of
new technology
Bank
(A)
The development of a new technology system for an
automated clearing house, real time gross settlement, and
automated check processing, which contributed to
diversification, acceleration and the accuracy of various financial
and banking services.
Islamic
Murabaha
Decision
Bank
(A)
The Islamic Murabaha decision was one of the most
important strategic decisions recently taken. Murabaha means
that the bank buys and owns certain products, for example ( cars,
electrical appliances, electronic devices). The bank sells them
after adding all costs, with a reasonable profit that the two parties
agreed upon.
Training
Decision
Bank
(B)
The training decision represents one of the important
decisions taken by the bank and available to the employees for
training courses in all disciplines. The aims of the training
decision was to improve the performance of bank employee in
order to create a national cadre able to run and manage the bank
and enable the Bank to keep pace with global developments in
Islamic
Murabaha
Decision
Bank
(B)
The Islamic Murabaha decision was the most important
decision taken recently by the bank. The Islamic Murabaha
decision was a product of new banking business, to replace the
interest system, accompanied by developments in society to
establish investment and develop projects. The bank was
suffering the problem of individuals refusing to deal with interest
since it contradicts with the Islamic Sharia.
Training
Decision
Bank
(C)
The bank, during the past few years, put operational training
and rehabilitation at the forefront, carrying many of the programs
of training and familiarization in all areas related to banking, and
in conjunction with the ongoing economic reforms at the level of
the financial sector and monetary policy. The bank took this
decision based on the requirements of banking reform and
orientations by the Central Bank of Libya. The decision was
made due to the bank suffering from several problems such as
(1) poor banking services provided to the customer, (2)
mistreatment of customers by the employees, (3) the lack of
trained and qualified staff, (4) not keeping up with the latest
Table 2
Interviewees and their duties in the three banks
Interview Bank Position Role & Responsibilities
P1 A Executive
Manager
Studying offers by foreign companies, attending
informal meetings, maintaining the unity of a
network server, preparation of monthly reports in
accordance with the indicators of the plan and
submitting them to the Director-General and
follow-up to the level of implementation of the project.
P2 A Manager:
Accounting
Department
Organizing the work in financial management,
leading to the arrival of the correct information at the
right time for decision-makers, analysis of
investment opportunities, clarifying the financial
implications of the decisions.
P3 A Member of Board
of Directors
Attending regular meetings for the management
committee members, developing plans and programs
to serve the objectives of the Bank, and contributes
to activities of the standing committees and special
committees
P4 A Manager:
Marketing
looking for investment opportunities and how to
Department them before they occur, review the bank`s strategies
in order to remain compatible with the market, and
collecting and analyzing information about
customers to identify the orientation and then the
ability to satisfy their needs.
P5 A Member:Board of
Directors
Attends regular meetings for the management
committee members, reviews the data, information
and statistics related to the decision, and study and
evaluate technical and economic decisions.
P6 A Manager:
Accounting
Department
Assistance in financial planning long-term,
medium-range and short-term, choose the
appropriate information correctly, accurately and
usefully from among the vast amount of information,
and contributes to the necessary measures to provide
new sources of funding.
P7 B Manager:
Accounting
Department
Organizing the work in financial management,
leading to the arrival of the correct information at the
right time for decision-makers, analysis of
investment opportunities, attends periodic meetings
within the bank, achieving financial and accounting
settlements within and outside the bank, and
assistance in financial planning for decisions-making
P8 B Manager:
Marketing
Department
Contributes to taking the necessary measures to
provide new sources of funding, reviews the bank`s
strategies in order to remain compatible with the
market, and collecting and analyzing information
about customers to identify the orientation and then
the ability to satisfy their needs, contributing to the
diversification and improving the quality of banking
services.
P9 B Deputy Manager:
Commercial
Department
The same duties as the general manager and
helping him in his duties and deputy in his absence,
taking the necessary action to conduct the bank
business and to take administrative action to hold
violators in accordance with the laws and
regulations, Participation in making the decisions in
the bank, and proposing all necessary means to
develop and improve bank performance and its
branches.
P10 B Manager:
Training
Department
Identifying the training requirements of the bank
and preparing for the training plan, preparing the
studies and research that would raise the efficiency
of training, the statistics and data on programs and
trainees, the manual training companies and trainers,
nomination of companies that will assign them to
implement the programs, follow up and evaluate the
implementation of training programs.
P11 B Manager:
Accounting
Department
Achieving a financial and accounting settlement
within and outside the bank, preparing the budget
estimates for the training plan, and clarifying the
financial implications of decisions, and attending
periodic meetings within the bank.
P12 B Deputy General
Manager.
The same duties as general manager and helping
him in his duties and deputy in his absence,
responsible for assisting the Director-General in the
supervision of the progress of work within the bank
and its various branches, the responsibility of
studying the draft reports on the progress of work at
the bank, and his view before submission to the
Director-General, as proposed by all necessary
means to develop and improve bank performance
and its branches.
P13 B Manager:
Credit/Risk
Risk Identification, data analysis and information
to identify different types of risks facing the bank,
draw up action plans of various departments and the
level of commitment to follow-up, in order to
(financial, operational, market risk, liquidity and
legal, etc, control the size of the risks to minimize
their negative effects on the bank and by working to
invent and activate mechanisms to reduce financial
risk, and measure the risks and determine their
effects on bank.
P14 C Manager:
Training
Department
Identifyng the training needs of the bank,
preparing the budget estimates for the annual
training plan, preparing the manual training
companies and trainees in each area of
specialization, review the design of training
programs provided by the companies and third
parties, and monitor and evaluate the implementation
of training programs.
P15 C Member of Board
of Directors
Attending regular meetings for the management
committee members, contribution to plans and
programs to serve the objectives of the bank, and
contribute to activating the standing and special
committees.
P16 C Manager:
Administration
Attending formal meetings of the bank,
evaluation of proposals regarding the development,
standardization, harmonization of policies,
administrative staff or services, or public relations in
the bank, preparation of development plans and
administrative development of workers in the bank,
the application of policies and procedures that
promote public relations reputation of the bank at
home and abroad, and providing management
consulting for all departments in the bank, and
contribute to the development and coordination of
Table 3
Examples of quotations from interviews which support an interpretation of
‘concerned attention’ among senior managers.
“Because this decision is very important, the Bank took careful steps. I believe, so far,
every step concerning the decision has been well planned and followed.” (P2-A)
"... We did not have the technology need and trained personnel for this strategic step the Bank tried to take.” (P2-A)
“It was very important for us to be very careful in what we are doing.” (P3-A)
“…The problem is that the bank is controlled with policies and regulations.” (P6-A)
“…The Islamic Murabaha decision is a kind of radical change of the bank, and therefore
we were worried that we would not achieve the goals that we sought.” (P4-A)
“…..the managers lacked experience in making this decision….” (P7-B)
I believe that the required information was collected to make this decision, and the problem experienced by the bank was identified as the lack of staff for advanced training programs on mechanisms of banking business". (P10-B)
“To make sure that our training decision had any chance to succeed, we first analysed
“We still felt we had inadequate experience and this made us concerned about taking the correct decision.” (P12-B)
“We have made many mistakes in the past. …. We cannot afford to make mistakes in this
decision, because it is very important to our future.” (P15-C)
"…We were already very late making this decision, we were suffering from problems with
the customers, for example, mistreatment of customers by employees and poor service provided to them ..." (P14-C)
“The importance of this training decision to our bank is massive. Because of that we are
investing so much into it as we are very sure that this step is unavoidable, and it will help the
Table 4
Examples of quotations from interviews which support an interpretation of
co-operative and consultative behaviour.
“I was a member of the Committee, we cooperated with each other to get information, and we acquired the assistance from other departments.” (P3-A).
“I have got cooperation and the information from one of my relative’s works who works
in one of the Arab Islamic banks”. (P6-A)
“… I believe all administrations cooperated with the Committee on gathering the
necessary information by virtue of personal relationships…". (P5-A)
“…We have hosted one of the economic experts in Islamic banking from our brothers in Qatar to give three days lectures….” (P5-A)
“…As we have acquired the information through our personal relationship with other
managers in different departments in the bank, and by virtue of the friendship between staff
and colleagues...” (P2-A).
“Our committee worked together, and the spirit of cooperation and collective
construction of common ideas helped to create friendships among them….” (P9- B).
“…We met with the President of Board of the bank and we talked and decided to form an
internal committee consisting of a number of the staff headed by the Director of training and
management.” (P11-B)
"…Some information was collected based on external sources. Formal visits were
“We received assistance by staff in different departments, and from other managers in
other banks." (P14-C)
"…We held several visits to the Arab Bank of Qatar and the Bank of Jordan and Egypt before the start of making that resolution. We sent about 3 committees headed by the
department to managers of these banks,….. to identify the developed methods of training
